Binance Adds Credit Card Support for Top Cryptos

On the last day of January, Simplex, one of the leading providers for processing payments, announced their partnership with the biggest exchange in the market according to CoinMarketCap – Binance.

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO and the first man of Binance exchange shared the details on the partnership in one of the latest press releases submitted directly to Cointelegraph where he announced that some of the major cryptocurrencies listed on Binance are now supported for credit card purchases.

As noted by some crypto enthusiasts on Twitter following the credit card support announcement, credit card purchases are most probably set to increase the overall level of adoption.

Thanks to the partnership with Simplex, Binance users will be able to use their credit cards for purchasing some of the largest cryptocurrencies in the market.

Binance enabled credit card support for only four cryptos for now, without stating whether other cryptos will get the credit card support in the future as well. For now, Binance clients can use their Visa and MasterCard credit cards to purchase Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple’s XRP.

Simplex is described on their official website as a fintech company operating with fraud-free payment processing. As explained on the official website, Simplex provides crypto platforms, merchants and marketplaces such as Binance, to take advantage of maximized conversion, fraud prevention, global reach and chargeback liability.

Simplex announced their partnership with the largest cryptocurrency exchange market in an enthusiastic tweet on January 31st:

“We are super excited to announce the new partnership with @Binance – the leading #crypto exchange! Making it easier for mainstream users to buy crypto and continue transforming the financial space.”

Simplex CEO, Nimrod Lehavi, stated regarding the latest partnership with Binance that credit card support is the key in wider adoption of cryptocurrency for mainstream users.

Binance Users Can Start Trading in Minutes, says CZ

Changpeng Zhao explained that the company is set to provide traders on the exchange with simple, easy and fast access to crypto trading and cryptocurrencies, adding that with credit card support, traders can start buying digital assets in the matter of minutes.

CZ went on to explain how the majority of world’s monetary value is still held in fiat currencies and that the cryptocurrency market is still in the early stage of growth, which is why gateways such as Simplex’ credit card support are important for mass adoption.

Since over-the-counter cryptocurrency marketplaces are recording an increased demand alongside increased trading volumes, Binance exchange also launched an OTC cryptocurrency market during the last week.

The market is named Binance OTC and it serves the purpose of processing larger crypto transactions, starting from 20 BTC and up.

Binance is currently the largest exchange in the crypto market with an average of half billion dollars in daily trading volumes.

Litecoin (LTC) Available on Huobi Derivative Market, XRP Next on the List

In one of the latest press releases, Huobi Derivative Market announced the addition of a new cryptocurrency, this time adding Litecoin (LTC).

According to the official release, Litecoin became available for contract trading on January 25th, while Huobi Derivative Market announced their plan on adding more digital assets to the list of existing cryptocurrencies in 2019.

In the meanwhile, despite the rough time LTC had during the most of 2018, we can see the crypto rebounding to push Stellar Lumens (XLM) down the list as Litecoin became the 7th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Livio Wang, the CEO of Huobi Global, said in an official announcement regarding the latest listing of Litecoin that Huobi have seen an increased demand for LTC from their users, which is the reason why they decided to add Litecoin to their list of cryptos being traded through contracts.

Huobi Derivative Market have previously listed Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and EOS (EOS) for contract trading, additionally opening an exchange focused on EOS as a base currency for increased adoption of the crypto.

Weng added that Huobi Derivative Market can represent a powerful tool for managing cryptocurrencies with lowered risk, especially due to the fact that Litecoin has been experiencing frequent price drops alongside its crypto peers.

Now that LTC have joined the growing list of contract-traded digital assets, Huobi DM users can take advantage of hedging, speculation and arbitrage for trading risk mitigation.

Cryptocurrency can be traded through contracts on Huobi DM on weekly, bi-weekly and quarterly basis, while the CEO of Huobi Group added that they are planning on adding more assets for contract trading in 2019.

According to Weng, Ripple’s XRP should be the next in line to follow up the listing of Litecoin on Huobi DM.

Litecoin One of the Biggest Altcoins, XRP Next to Be Listed – Weng Claims

Calling LTC one of the biggest altcoins in the market, being the first hard fork to be derived from Bitcoin chain with improved time for validating transactions and with lower fees perfect for microtransactions, Weng added that Ripple’s XRP will be the next digital asset to join the list of cryptos available on Huobi Derivative Market for contract trading.

Moreover, Huobi DM offers competitive fee rates, stating that doesn’t go beyond 0.02% for makers dealing with LTC and 0.03% for takers with an additional fee of 0.05% for delivery.

Huobi DM helps traders lower the risk of losing their investment in an already vulnerable cryptocurrency market that lost nearly -90% of the total value of all cryptos in the market by offering price limits, position limit and order limit.

Additionally, traders can go long or short with LTC and other available assets on Huobi DM, having user protection through Risk Management Insurance Fund and Huobi Security Fund that holds 20,000 BTC in order to prevent security failures.

Huobi is by far one of the leading companies in the blockchain industry with 1 trillion-dollar cap in accumulative turnovers, working on cryptocurrency adoption since 2013.

Litecoin Becomes the Official Cryptocurrency Partner of UFC

After going through a rough time during the November crisis, while the crypto slipped few ranks down back at the beginning of the second quarter of 2018 when LTC lost its long-held rank of the fifth-largest currency to EOS (EOS), Litecoin is still managing to keep its price above 20$, currently traded at 29$.

One of the latest partnerships might bring some additional relief to Litecoin as well, as UFC announced on December 27th that Litecoin (LTC) has become “the first official cryptocurrency of UFC”.

Even though it is yet not clear in which way UFC and Litecoin will benefit from the announced partnership, but still, the event set to present Litecoin as the first cryptocurrency partner is scheduled to take place this Saturday, on December 29th.

Litecoin foundation and UFC might not have much in common, however, as described in the official blog post published by the team representatives behind the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Litecoin and UFC are described as being “community driven”.

UFC also stated that the movement started off from baby steps, “tiny grassroots” as described in the official press release, towards becoming a global phenomenon, comparing the community that provided support for UFC to LTC community.

As stated in the announcement, Litecoin is to become their partner for the event that should take place in several days, called UFC 232 where the former UFC light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, will fight against Alexander Gustafsson, another UFC’s light heavyweight fighter.

That is how UFC announced that Litecoin will be entering the “world-famous” Octagon on December 29th, while they will continue to explore their options with Litecoin foundation in 2019 as well.

The representatives of UFC also stated in the official release that LTC scored many prominent partnerships during 2018 as Litecoin foundation also became the first cryptocurrency ever to sponsor such event.

Litecoin Entering UFC Octagon: Raising Awareness on Litecoin and LTC

From humble beginnings to becoming a world-famous phenomenon with a strong community behind it, UFC has millions of fans and supporters, which also comes as beneficial for Litecoin in this case as well.

As Litecoin logo will be displayed in the ring, LTC will consequently get increased exposure, also raising awareness on what cryptocurrency stands for and what Litecoin represents in and outside the world of blockchain.

Ultimate Fighting Championship team also stated that the most recent sponsorship from Litecoin foundation might turn into long-term cooperation, adding that they are looking forward to more amazing things with Litecoin.

John Edison, the director of communications and marketing at Litecoin foundation explained that the reason behind Litecoin entering Octagon on the upcoming event lies in the fact that the foundation is planning to continue their cooperation with major brands and companies even in 2019 as it was the case by far.

As Edison further explains, the next logical move for the foundation was to sponsor the world-known UFC as the first official cryptocurrency of such event.

Charlie Lee previously stated in one of his interviews for Bloomberg that LTC foundation will be focusing on mass adoption in 2019, which further explains the move of the foundation in terms of their partnership with Ultimate Fighting Championship for the upcoming match.

Litecoin (LTC) Will Have another Halving in 2019: Block Rewards Will Be Reduced to 12.5

The last time Litecoin network went through halving was four years after the hard fork from Bitcoin, back in 2015.

Halving is a process that is most probably of the greatest concern for miners, as halving affects the number of mining rewards. The process of halving involves the cutting of mining rewards by half, thus the name, which means that the rewards that miners are getting for validating transactions and creating blocks would be reduced by -50%.

The process of halving is inherited from the Bitcoin code base which has the same repetition of the mentioned process every 4 years, where the rewards for mining are being reduced.

The last time Litecoin halving took place was back in 2015 when the block reward was reduced from 50 to 25, which means that the next halving will be cut to 12.5 in rewards.

Given the fact that the rewards are reducing with an already reduced price of the heavily declining LTC, now ranked as the 9th largest cryptocurrency by its market cap, the reduction based on halving may affect the miners of LTC, however, it is less likely that halving could affect the network.

When Will the Next Litecoin (LTC) Halving Take Place?

Halving is a process which involves cutting the mining rewards in half. Halving occurs at every 840,000 blocks, which means that there will be one halving at every four years for Litecoin.

This is the case with Bitcoin as well, so naturally, Litecoin has the same code base, given the fact that LTC represents the first fork derived from the Bitcoin main chain.

The last halving reduced the reward from 50 to 25 coins, and the next should bring 12.5 in rewards for miners of LTC.

Although the halving process won’t in any way affect the network, it is said that it could affect certain groups of miners that would find the rewards of 12.5 coins too little to support the mining expenses.

At the same time, the price of Litecoin is significantly reduced since the beginning of 2018, and it may also continue with dipping within mostly bear trends in 2019 as well.

For now, Litecoin is having a hard time recovering, trading below the value of 30$ and probably heading towards 20$ and below from its current price of 24$.

The next halving that will lead to the mining reward of 12.5 blocks will take place in less than a year, specifically on August 8th, 2019, once the 840,000th block is reached.

What Halving Means for Litecoin (LTC)?

It has been recorded with the last halving process that took place back in 2015 that the number of miners was reduced in accordance with the halved amount of block rewards, supporting the theory that a portion of miners can’t afford LTC mining at reduced rewards.

The network, of course, adjusts to the reduced number of miners, just like it is the case with Bitcoin.

The halving of block rewards doesn’t reduce the difficulty of mining although it should in theory as mining through Proof of Work is still highly competitive, especially with the new and advanced mining equipment that not all individual miners can afford.

Theoretically, the losses of the crypto are said to potentially even out through balancing between the period of one halving and the other that should arrive in August 2019. However, while some believe that the price of LTC will rise with the next halving, others claim that the price will dip.

What Litecoin (LTC) Gets from Being the First Crypto on Facebook Messenger

While it has been rumored that Litecoin will get to Facebook as the first cryptocurrency payment method already at the beginning of 2018, harsh Facebook policy on cryptos and new ICOs have put this idea on hold for a while.

However, since the social network company with over 2 billion users worldwide changed their opinion on cryptocurrencies, starting their own blockchain project, at the end of the last quarter of the year Litecoin finally got to Facebook as one of the payment methods available on Facebook Messenger.

Litecoin will at the same time represent the first cryptocurrency that got to this major social network giant, marking a near historical achievement in the world of cryptocurrencies as far as the adoption concerned.

This wouldn’t be possible without Lite.IM that previously enabled Litecoin based payments through Telegram and SMS.

Litecoin is Available on Facebook Messenger with Lite.IM

Lite.IM has previously allowed Litecoin based payments where users were easily able to receive and send LTC through Telegram messaging or SMS, or safely store them in their Lite.IM wallet.

As announced weeks ago, Litecoin became the first cryptocurrency that got to Facebook Messenger as a way of sending payments to your friends and relatives.

Previously, after taking a break from the harsh regulations and bans on cryptos within Facebook social platforms, Zuckerberg soon approved and started a separate department for studying blockchain, which means that LTC based payments might only be the very start of Facebook projects that honor blockchain.

For now, Facebook Messenger users can send and receive Litecoin based payments through Lite.IM, while Litecoin is said to be the perfect choice for the messaging app given the fact that Litecoin enables micropayments.

Litecoin is also considered to be “light,” and should have adopted 10 times lower fees in the near future as the team is planning on updating Litecoin Core to version 0.17.

What Does Litecoin Get from Facebook Messaging App?

Facebook messenger is most certainly one of the greatest social network platforms, also being one of the pioneers in the sector of social networking on the head with Mark Zuckerberg.

Although there have been some privacy concerns regarding how Facebook used its users’ data without the users’ approval, using cryptocurrency based payment such as Litecoin is surely safe and secure since it is done through blockchain integration and powered by LIte.IM.

At the same time, the availability of LTC on Facebook’s messaging application as the first cryptocurrency is said to be able to bring LTC close to adoption in the long run as the messenger is used by over 2 billion people worldwide.

Litecoin is said to become even more attractive with lowering the fees by 10 times with the next update, however, the by far integration of Litecoin with HTC Exodus crypto phone and Facebook Messenger adoption aren’t reflecting on the value of Litecoin.

So, while Facebook might be a solid medium for LTC adoption in the future, the importance of the availability of Litecoin payments on the messaging app of one of the biggest social network is still not physically depicted in the price of LTC in the market.

As the market is headed towards another massive decline, Litecoin has gone below the initial value of 30$, “threatening” to get below 20$ with the next dip as December continues in bearish trends.

Litecoin Drops to Make Way for EOS (EOS) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

The market is definitely seen in a major turmoil as it appears that the dips from November only went ahead to mark December with bearish trends as well. The state in the market is such that it doesn’t allow the toppers to rise back up against the fiat, having the cryptos touching new lows from day to day.

There are only several exceptions in the crypto market and in the case of the top ten trading currencies; this honor belongs to the latest fork of Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV (BSV).

Bitcoin SV seems to be doing rather well, as BSV is the only cryptocurrency among the top ten that made quite a movement in the market to reach the spot of the 5th largest crypto in the market, while Bitcoin Cash went down to take the seventh place.

Litecoin once occupied to the rank of the 5th largest currency, where it remained for a long time, however, at the end of the first quarter of 2018 EOS went past LTC by its market cap to sink it one spot down on the list of top trading cryptos.

LTC didn’t stop there with the unforgiving dips, still dropping to touch new lows.

Litecoin Hits another Low: LTC Sinks to the Spot of the 9th Largest Cryptocurrency

9th largest crypto is a rather flattering title, but probably not in the case if the given crypto came there from a higher ranking, as it is the case with Litecoin.

Since the market is dropping at an accelerated rate, having billions of dollars in the overall cryptocurrency capitalization losing billions, Litecoin is going down as well.

Only in the period of a single week had LTC lost over -21% of its value, still dipping on a daily basis, which drove Litecoin to its new low of under 30$.

Litecoin is now traded at the price of 26$, which eventually sank it to the spot of the 9th largest cryptocurrency. Instead, EOS had a chance to go ahead of Litecoin once again, now ranked as the 8th largest crypto, where Bitcoin Cash also sank from the spot number 5 to make way for Bitcoin SV, now the 5th biggest crypto by its market cap.

While Bitcoin SV is progressing with new gains despite the overall bearish trends in the market, Litecoin might go even lower down the list, perhaps eventually leaving the list of top ten traders at this pace.

Litecoin Adoption and Integrations Have No Effect on the Price of LTC

It appears that integrations and announcements that LTC has become available on Facebook Messenger as a method of payment, also announcing support from HTC Exodus, a new phone from HTC focused on cryptocurrency technology, have no effects on the dipping Litecoin.

That is how it seems that the market trends dictating the movement in the market have more influence on the status of cryptocurrencies in the crypto market than new integrations, listings and partnerships driving cryptos to adoption.

Litecoin, although losing over half of its value in the course of a single month, marking -54% of dips, is not the only crypto suffering from major losses in the period of last 4 weeks.

The Upcoming Litecoin Core 0.17 Will Make Transaction Fees Even Lower for LTC

Since the very beginning of Litecoin as the first hard fork to be derived from the Bitcoin chain, Charlie Lee, the founder, and CEO of Litecoin wanted LTC to become an alternative payment method that serves the lowest fees and some of the fastest transaction times.

By 2018, LTC was one of the top 5 cryptocurrencies, known as one of the promptest and cheapest blockchain solutions for exchanging monetary value, however, the team is noting that the price of fees easily went over 0.10$ and even a bit over 1$ back in 2017.

That is why the core developers decided to make Litecoin transactions cheaper for users and get the speed and fees for LTC to the state as it was back in 2015, aiming to bring fees that won’t go above the amount of a single cent, which should be some of the lowest fees available in the market.

The current average of transaction fees is 0.05$, however, the tea plans on bringing fees down by ten times with the upcoming release dubbed Litecoin Core 0.17.

Litecoin Core New Release to Bring 10 Times Lower Fees to LTC Users

The team announced back in October, by releasing an official update on the future release of Litecoin that the new version of Litecoin Core should bring the transaction fees for Litecoin down.

The team states that the average fees for LTC transactions make 0.05$, however, the team is planning on lowering the fees by 10 times in order to bring some of the cheapest transactions to the market.

The announcement came even before the major period of dips that came with the mid-November, showcasing the readiness of the team to make Litecoin even more available as a widely adopted payment method.

In that spirit, the new version that the team is working on should bring 10 times lower fees that wouldn’t go far from half a cent like it was the case back in 2015.

The lead core developer, Adrian Gallagher, stated that lowering fees should increase the adoption of Litecoin, deeming it a good strategic move for the future of LTC and LTC based transactions.

The lead core developer is also predicting that the bear market should switch to more bullish trends in the course of the next 3 to 6 months when the foundation for lower fees should become proactive for the further growth of Litecoin.

How Will Litecoin Core 0.17 Release Affect LTC in the Market?

Litecoin is already going through major integrations, having announced the arrival of LTC to Facebook’s messaging application and also gaining support from the upcoming HTC Exodus cryptocurrency focused phone by HTC, however, the team believes that 10 times lower fees for the same transaction speed will make a huge difference for Litecoin adoption.

The team is hoping to increase the adoption of Litecoin with offering low fees and fast transaction times, which is the primary vision behind the creation of Litecoin in the first place according to the founder Charlie Lee.

New Crypto Phone HTC Exodus Adds Support for Litecoin (LTC)

Charlie Lee, the CEOand the creator of Litecoin (LTC), which is the first Bitcoin fork ever, announced that he has had a talk with Phill Chen, who is at the position of Decentralized Chief Officer at HTC at Slush 2018 on December 6th, in Helsinki.

At the event, the chief officer of HTC’s decentralized department and the founder of Litecoin had a chance to talk about the latest “crypto” phone, called HYC Exodus.

HTC Exodus is designed and made especially for cryptocurrency users as it puts operating with cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology at ease.

The phone also comes with a built-in hardware wallet with private key and password back up to prevent lost and stolen funds through social key recovery feature, and perhaps the greatest part of the deal for crypto enthusiasts when it comes to this new phone is the fact that HTC Exodus will be supporting cryptocurrencies.

Charlie Lee confirmed at Slush 2018 that Litecoin will get support from the new HTC Exodus, while interested enthusiasts will be able to purchase HTC Exodus within a presale event where buyers would be able to purchase the product in Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH).

Litecoin Coming to HTC Exodus: Other Cryptocurrencies to Get Support as Well

HTC Exodus is coming and all interested crypto enthusiasts will have a chance to buy the product before the official release to the stores with the possibility of using Litecoin, Bitcoin or Ethereum as a payment method.

Not only that the new HTC Exodus accepts crypto-based payments, but it also has a built-in cryptocurrency wallet.

The name of the wallet is Zion, and the users should be able to store Litecoin, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and different ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens.

The wallet also enables a brand new storage method that includes the social key recovery in order to prevent having missing funds in case your phone is lost or stolen in any case.

Phill Chase, the chief officer stated that only users of HTC Exodus have exclusive rights to their private keys and information, where users are protecting through a decentralized concept and enabled to carry their digital lives in their pocket with HTC Exodus the same way people carry their phones every day.

Charlie Lee shared his opinion on the addition of Litecoin to HTC Exodus by stating that his vision for Litecoin always included LTC as a widely distributed currency and having Litecoin used as a fast and cheap method for transacting value.

Lee believes that HTC Exodus will expand the cryptocurrency technology and bring cryptos closer to a wider usage around the globe while offering ultimate security and privacy with the new crypto-focused phone by HTC.

Despite active adoption campaigns and solid adoption strategies, Litecoin is still dipping at an accelerated rate, now trading below the initial price of 30$. In the meanwhile, driven by the dips, LTC went from the 5th spot on the list as one of the top five currencies at the beginning of 2018 to declining to become the 9th largest crypto in the last weeks of 2018.